The Wilmingtonian., 1887-09-17
MR.. coLoRoW's GREAT SPEECH.
Bill Nye Reports It and Explains His
Indian Policy,

Indian Policy.
My policy--one which, 1 regret to say, has
never been adopted by the government-is to
hire sufficient number of armed herders to
take the entire grand remnant sale of Indian
tribes out ON the plains and watch them all
summer, rounding them up and counting
them every morning and evening to see that
they are all there. Through the day they
might be kept busy pulling up the "pizen
weed" which grows all over the grazing
grounds of the west, and thus they would
get plenty of fresh air and at the same time
do good i'll a modest way. But this scheme
for "Utelizing" the Utes is hundred years
ahead of the age, and SO do not expect
that it will meet with the Endorsement of the
administration.
There are, however, two sides TO the Indian
question--yiz., right and wrong side.
That is why the Indian question wears SO
well.
One of the great wrongs incident to the
matter is the great delay in officially reach
ing the war department in such n way as to
attract the eye of the speaker. By the time
a courier can get into telegraph station and
wire the governor of a state, who notifies the
adjutant general to write a dictated letter
with his trenchant typewriter, apprising the
commander of the department, who is at
Coney Island or Carlsbad, with no typewriter
nearer than fifteen miles, who wires the gov
ernof to make active inquiries about the mat
ter, and by the time the governor has sent q
committee, who go to within fifty miles Of
the scene of hostilities, and return ut the end
Of SIX weeks to report that they do not know
whether there has been an outbreak or not,
and then when ranchman is really killed and
reputable eyewitnesses who were personally
acquainted with deceased, and will swear that
they have no interest in the result of the out
break, como in and make a written and
grammatical request for troops, and the war
department gets thoroughly rested, the In
dians have gone home, washed the gore off
their hands and resumed their quiet, hum
drum life. Like trying to treat man in
Liverpool for softening of the brain by ap-
plying the mind cure per cable from New
York, the remedy is too remote from the dis
ease.
Indians are quick and impulsive in the
matter of homicide. They are slow to grapple
with anything of humorous nature, and all
the humorous lecturers who have been on
the Ute lecture course have lost money, but
in the holocaust line or general arson, tor
ture and massacre business they act with
astonishing rapidity. AS a race they re-
gard this entire land as their own, just as the
mosquitoes claim New Jersey, simply be-
cause they were there first.
The Indians see that the property is i'm
proving and so they feel more and more
wealthy and arrogant They claim that they
will never give up their rights unless they
get hard up, and even then it will not count.
They always have mental reservation in
these matters which they prefer to the reser-
yotion prOyidnl bv tba
Indians naturally dislike to see these lands
in the possession of wealthy men whose sons
earn precarious livelihood by playing lawn
tennis.
Colorow once made short speech to his
troops, which was taken down at the time by
a gentleman who was present and who was
collecting material for a new third reader for
our common schools.
Colorow claimed that it was incorrect, and
the notes were found afterward on the stenog.
rapher's body. 1t is about as ticklsh busi-
ness to report an Indian speech as it is to
poultice boil on the person of the ameer Of
Cabul.
In closing Colorow said: "Warriors, our
sun is set, We are most of us on third base
and we have no influence with the umpire.
"Once | could stand on the high ground
and one shout would fill the forest with war
riors. Now the wailing wind catches up my
cry and bears it away like the echo of our
former greatness, and hear q low voice
murmur, Rats
"Whisky and refinement have filled our
land with sorrow. The white man crossed
the dark waters in his large canoe and filled
the forest with churches and railroad acci-
dents.
"The Indian loves not TO make money and
own aldermen for which he has no use. He
loves his wives and his children and intrusts
them with the responsibility of doing all his
work. The white man comes to us with
honeyed words and says if we will divide our
lands with him he will give us present, and
when we give him county and half he
gives us red collar button and blue book, in
which he has written in his strange and silent
language, when this you see, remember me-
Our warriors are weak and have the hearts
of women. They care not for the warpath or
the chase. Most of them want to go on the
stage. Once my warriors went with me at a
moments warning to clean out the foe. They
slept in tho swamps with the Tattlesilakes at
night and fought like wolves in the daytime
Now my warriors will not go on the warpath
without valise, and some of them want to
carry their dinner.
"Some day, like the fall of mighty oak in
the Forest Colorow will fall to the earth and
he will rise no more. You will be scattered
to the four winds of heaven, and you viii go
no more to battle. Some of you will starve
to death, while others will 60 to New York
and wear long linen duster, with the price
of cut rate tickets down the back. Some of
you will die with snakes in your moccasins,
and others will go to Jerusalem to help rob
the Deadwood coach.
"WaTiors thank you for your kind at
tention and appreciation, The regular out
break will begin tomorrow evening at early
candle light The massacre will open with a
song and dance"
Colorow dresses plainly in a cont Of paint
and gun-New York World.
Business Was Brisk.
I...I.I ~ Il...I I..i.